February 28, 2011

New York’s own Skeleton Key, the junkyard-percussion noise-rockers whose 1997 debut Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon remains the almighty jam (here’s “The World’s Most Famous Undertaker” live, which if nothing else gives you an idea of the percussive chaos at work here), are plotting a long-awaited comeback album, helmed by bassist/vocalist/”marionetter” Erik Sanko and funded hopefully via Kickstarter, a modest $5,000 effort absolutely worth your time/money, if only for the predictably wacky prizes should you deign to get involved.

For example: “used circular saw blades from junk percussion kit” ($60 and above), a “professional haircut + style” by their drummer and/or a hand-drawn puppet face ($100, within 50-mile NYC radius for the haircut), the actual slide trombone used on the album ($250), a personalized marionette hand-crafted by Sanko himself ($1,500), or, climactically and inevitably, the Skeleton Key live show at your house, that one with a 100-mile NYC radius, and I mean, get ready to have some serious conversations with your neighbors, before and after. Your promo video is below; this is worth doing just to see how exactly one ships a saw blade, besides “very carefully,” of course.